Thursday, August 16, 2007

Our friend Top Reviewer Robert Morris was asked:

Here:
Tralphonso Beshore
Is every book you read a 5 star book?

Robert Morris
Excellent question. No but most of those I review are.
And, as we've pointed out before, since Robert Morris has been, apparently for years, reviewing on average a couple of books a day, it follows that not only does he read at least that much daily, but actually even more than that: but he does not review the books that aren't quite perfect. Hmmm... OK, if you say so, Sir. Btw, about those that are not five stars, what are they? Four stars? Have you ever posted a one-star review? I couldn't find any; as a matter of fact, I could only see five-star reviews -- but then I haven't checked it all, of course.

6 comments:

Barbara Delaney said...

Imagine possessing such a golden touch that every single book you selected to read, without exception, was not just a good read, but a perfect, flawless reading experience.

The alternative explanation would be that Mr. Morris is a dishonest shill. But a shill reviewing at Amazon?! What are the odds of that happening?

Malleus said...

That can't be -- and that's all there is to it!

PS. He also reads exclusively business books. 'scuse me -- those are he reviews. Surely he reads more than just business books, but why review them? Their no good! What's Faulkner next to, say, HBR issue 25? Pfeh...

Barbara Delaney said...

Malleus,

What's Proust compared to Who Moved My Cheese?

KT Grant said...

For some reason I have found the majority of reviewers only like to put 4 or 5 star reviews. I have also found the same on other reviewing websites, including other ones I review for. And even if the book is so bad, we still must put a positive spin on the reviews.
If you give constructive remarks, I don't understand why an author can't take the criticism?
I reviewed 4 books this week for amazon and two were under 2 stars one was a 3 star and finally a 4 star, so I personally believe if the book is bad, you need to state it, regardless if you hurt feelings or are afraid of being flamed.

Malleus said...

I could care less about authors and publishers and their feelings. If I buy a book and discover it's bad, I WILL post a review just to warn other readers! I'll do it sooner than I'll praise a good book. Why should I spare the feelings of an author who didn't care to write a good book? No one owes you anything. Last decade, I don't even see publishers making a good-faith effort to produce good books: I keep seeing stuff looking like no copy editor ever touched the thing. They try to steal my time and money and you can be sure I'll warn the others about that.

Barbara Delaney said...

Back when I had reviews on Amazon they tended toward the one star review because I thought I could potentially save someone from wasting their time and/or money. I also never weighed in on books that had dozens, (or hundreds), of reviews as that seems to me to be wasted effort. There comes a point where no one else needs to add yet another review of some popular novel, it's all been said. And so many people buy blockbusters out of the sheep mentality, you know, everyone else is carrying around a copy of the crappy DaVinci code so I'll buy one too. That's the book as accessory, baaaa.

But there was a memoir that I read and despised that had only two reviews on Amazon, one of them a five-star glowing tribute. This book had made me so angry, it was poorly written and the guy was a complete jerk, that I felt my review could add something to what was there.